Activision's Skylanders game series has captured the imagination of a generation of kids with its character designs and toy integration. But the newest Skylanders game lets children design their own Skylanders for the first time.
Toys for Bob, the developers of Skylanders, just announced the upcoming Skylanders Imaginators, which adds a very big new feature to the game series. Previous Skylanders sequels like Skylanders Trap Team, Skylanders Swap force, and Skylanders Superchargers, added new types of toys like traps, vehicles, and parts-swappable characters. Skylanders Imaginators puts slightly less effort on the toys themselves, instead focusing on the creativity its name implies.
Skylanders Imaginators adds a full character creation system to the series, letting players design their own Skylanders from a variety of cosmetic and gameplay options. These new custom Skylanders, the titular Skylanders Imaginators, can be saved to Creation Crystals, a new toy type for the game. These canisters of glowing crystals function as memory cards, each one holding a Skylanders Imaginator.
Skylanders Imaginators can be any combination of element (light, dark, fire, and more) and battle class (brawler, archer, sorcerer, and more), which defines the way each custom character plays. They can be built with different body parts of various shapes, sizes, and skins, letting kids customize them to their tastes and imaginations. Most of these options are purely cosmetic, but certain equipment items, like different weapons and backpacks, actually change the Skylanders Imaginators' stats.
The toy focus for Skylanders Imaginators is primarily on Creation Crystals, of which there is a different version for each of the game's 10 elements. Besides the Creation Crystals, Skylanders Imaginators will introduce 31 new character toys known as Senseis. Each toy can introduce a powerful, playable character in the game, as well as unlock new weapons and areas and remove level restrictions for created Skylanders Imaginators.
Skylanders Imaginators launches October 16 in North America. The Skylanders Imaginators Starter Pack will retail for $74.99 and include two Senseis, one Creation Crystal, the latest Skylanders Portal of Power for integrating toys into the game, and the game itself on Nintendo Wii U, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, or Xbox One. Additional Creation Crystals and Senseis will be available for $9.99 and $14.99 each.